Coal mine impoundment failures have been well documented to occur due to an increase in excess pore pressure from sustained monotonic loads. Very few failures have ever occurred from dynamic loading events, such as earthquakes, and research has been done regarding the stability of these impoundment structures under such natural seismic loading events. To date no failures or damage have been reported from dynamic loading events caused by near-by production blasting, however little research has been done considering these conditions. Taking into account that current environmental restrictions oblige to increase the capacity of coal impoundments, thus increasing the hazard of such structures, it is necessary to evaluate the effects of near-by blasting on the stability of the impoundment structures. To study the behavior of excess pore pressure under blasting conditions, scaled simulations of blasting events were set inside a controlled sand tank. Simulated blasts were duplicated in both saturated and unsaturated conditions. Explosive charges were detonated within the sand tank at various distances to simulate different scaled distances. Information was collected from geophones for dry and saturated scenarios and additionally from pressure sensors under saturated conditions to assess the behavior of the material under blasting conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uky.edu/oai:uknowledge.uky.edu:mng_etds-1034 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Creators | Larson-Robl, Kylie M. |
| Publisher | UKnowledge |
| Source Sets | University of Kentucky |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering |
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